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Cardboard Costume Challenge

The Mission? to inspire the making of awesome handmade cardboard costumes.

Take the first step:

1. Take a look at our Pinterest Board of inspiring cardboard costumes from all over the web. Last year’s costumes HERE and HERE.

2. Peruse the cardboard costume tutorials here and at the bottom of the page.

3. Upload pictures of your sketches, your costume in progress, your failed attempts, and your final results here in the Flickr pool. If you don’t have a Flickr account, just send pictures via email to adohrenwend@gmail.com with permission to upload them to the Flickr group pool and/or post on the blog.

4. Share your results. Help drum up excitement for all things creative and cardboard! Twitter #cdbdcostume, email, and Pinterest.

5. Check back on Nov. 2nd to see the complete collection of amazing cardboard costumes that were made.

Here’s a collection of some of the costume from 2012:

That’s it! We’d love to hear how your cardboard costume experience is going, please drop us a comment on any page or post.

I love this site. What a great find for my cardboard addiction. I thought I was the only one who uses cardboard as the number one go-to material. Im following you guys on pintrest now. I can’t wait to see all the other stuff you are going to continue to come up with.

I made cardboard Lego Star Wars costumes for my boys last year for halloween. They were such a hit and fun to make. You can check them out here and some of my other cardboard creations.

Came here to show my son, David (5years old), the Maisy bookshelf divider idea…When we saw the cardboard costume challenge he said “this is so cool! Can we do this?!!!”

I’ve done something similar in the past, but think your way is much better…I never thought of using all cardboard (I used duct tape which should not be on a mask! It smells bad to breathe and hurts your fingers after a while) But yes! All cardboard! Brilliant!! Love the inspiration you share on your blog. Hope we can be creative and come up with something to share!

Happened upon your site via Mr. Finch’s facebook page and I’m in love! I’ve actually been working quite a bit in my senior fiber’s thesis using various states of cardboard. Check my website to see some in process shots and few final outcomes! I’m currently working on a massive puppet that will be made of a cardboard base then covered with other fun materials!

Ah, Amber. I still can’t get over your gorgeous Luna Moth costume. Am so happy the Cardboard Costume Challenge is going strong for yet another year! Must share that I got to skype with an elementary school teacher on the East Coast about cardboard. Her enrichment class was doing the Global Cardboard Challenge and we got to discuss how to work with cardboard! I got to spread the love halfway across the nation, from my own house! Gotta love technology. And also how cardboard is spreading in new and wonderful ways, all over the world. Yay!

Just completed my first ever mask/giant cardboard head, “Wooly Bully”. Partly inspired by your site. No plan ahead of time. I made the toilet paper tube horns first and then just freestyled something to mount them on. The jaw is hinged using map pins and earring backs. Eyes are screened with scrap window screening. Has an interior crown of crackerbox cardboard to raise it up and make the positioning more exact. More costumes from recycled materials on my pinterest board: http://www.pinterest.com/betsyariley/betsys-cosplay-crowns/